A week after being on the run, the Dindoshi police yesterday nabbed the three minors who were absconding since the gang rape of a 16-year-old minor came to light.

One of the arrested suspects is alleged to have sexually assaulted the survivor, while the two others — one of whom is the survivor’s boyfriend — are alleged to have to lured the girl to spot.

The accused, aged between 16 and 17 years, were arrested from Sakinaka where they had gone to borrow money from a friend, after which they planned to flee the city.

“We knew that the boys had a friend in Sakinaka and could approach him. As expected, they went to Sakinaka to borrow Rs 5,000 from him to go to Andhra Pradesh,” said a police officer, on condition of anonymity. The police then laid a trap and arrested the three boys.

“If we did not arrest them today, they would have fled the city,” the officer added. Police said the breakthrough came when the survivor’s alleged boyfriend called her up on Sunday to inquire about the police complaint.

“One of the accused has been the girl’s boyfriend since the past one year. He called her up in an attempt to convince her to withdraw the complaint and also proposed to marry her. We knew that this would happen,” said the police officer.

The incident The 16-year-old girl was allegedly gang-raped by four men from a gang of six at MHADA Bridge, Goregaon (E), on November 1. The matter came to light on November 3 when the FIR was finally registered at Dindoshi police station. Three of the accused -- Wasim Hafeez Sayyed alias Katta (23), Yuvraj Pillai alias Surya (19), and Shivkumar Vishwakarma alias Kalva (19) -- were arrested from Diva in Thane district on November 5, when they were trying to flee the city.

The police officers said that after they arrested the three men, they began tracking the mobile phones of the three minors. They got to know that they had taken refuge in the forestedarea of Kurar, Malad (E).

For three days, over 200 policemen searched the area but could not locate them. “We were, however, confident that they would come out of the forest once they needed money. We also knew that they would call the girl to confront her about approaching the police. On November 8, we tracked the three men to Virar. However, when we reached the spot they fled, ” said a police officer from Dindoshi police station.